Student, 21, jumps to his death from Hale Wainani

 As the rate of suicide on college campuses across the nation continues to grow, the trend reached the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa last Wednesday night when a student took his own life.

Around 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 24, a residence hall student found the male student, 
a 21-year-old in the College of Arts and Sciences, lying unconscious, bleeding, and foaming at the mouth on the ground just outside the Hale Wainani I residence apartment tower.

Resident advisers were notified and called Campus Security, who administered CPR until emergency personnel arrived. An ambulance and the Honolulu police and fire departments were on the scene around 8 p.m., and the student was taken to Straub Clinic & Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. RAs said they could not find any one who witnessed the student’s fall from the building.

Michelle Yu, HPD media liaison, said on Monday that the police first ruled the case an unattended death by apparent suicide; the Honolulu medical examiner’s office said yesterday it determined the cause of death to be “multiple internal injuries due to suicidal fall from a height.”

Campus Security there was a trail of the student’s belongings – among them receipts indicating he had withdrawn completely from UH earlier that day – from the 12th down to the 10th floor stairwell of the apartment tower, where university and police officials believe he jumped from.

The male student, whose ID shows a permanent address on the Big Island, was not a student housing resident and left no suicide note.

how to get help, or be of help

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death with only fatal accidents occurring more frequently, according to the National Alliance on Mental Health, and MSNBC said in an Aug. 18, 2008, article that 5 percent of college students have attempted suicide, which by 2004 Census figures of estimated college enrollment nationwide means about 795,000 students.

These figures bother James Russell Henrie, a psychologist on staff at the UHM Counseling & Student Development Center. Henrie said that “for students, there’s a lot of life stress” that they may feel unable to handle on their own, especially if they have depression, and family and friends can make a great positive impact if they reach out.

“People feel ashamed, that they should be able to solve their problems on their own,” Henrie said. “It really helps to have an understanding friend.”

Henrie said that “it’s really important to normalize” their situation and validate their feelings “to make them feel less alone.”

“Suicide is when people are at a loss and are not seeing other options,” he said. “(Suicidal individuals) see it as a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

“Help the person find the other options.”

The UHM Counseling & Student Development Center is available to help students; contact them at (808) 956-7927. The 24-hour Suicide and Crisis Center can be reached at (808) 832-3100.

Staff Reporter Michelle White contributed to this report.                             

Sidebar

STATISTICS

• Every two hours and five minutes, a person under the age of 25 completes suicide.

• In 2006, 33,000 people completed suicide; 4,189 of these, nearly 8 percent, were between 15 and 24 years of age.

• An estimated 100 to 200 youth attempt suicide for every one that completes.

• More than 1,000 suicides occur on college campuses nationwide every year.

Source: American Association of Suicidology

HELP IS AVAILABLE

The UHM Counseling & Student Development Center is available to help students; contact them at (808) 956-7927. The 24-hour Suicide and Crisis Center can be reached at (808) 832-3100.